As I write, on October 4, 2018, it’s increasingly likely that Kavanaugh will ascend to the Supreme Court, despite the certainty that he lacks a “judicial temperament” and the distinct possibility that he’s a black-out drunk who tried to rape a 15-year-old girl. It also appears he lied under oath, at least about the severity of his drinking problem. Oh, and he also believes that his problems are a result not of his own actions but of a plot against him by the Clintons. So we can check the box for “believes in lunatic conspiracy theories.”
He also has never argued a case in court.
For all the supposed power of the #metoo movement, it cannot touch Kavanaugh. And for all the supposed power of the US Senate, they too are unable to stop him, although it’s absurd that Kavanaugh should be confirmed. There must be hundreds of other Republican judges who do not believe in conspiracy theories, who have never tried to rape a 15-year-old girl, and who do not drink to excess. And most of them are probably veteran litigators.
This is a collision of value systems. There’s the #metoo ethos, which is ultimately rooted in the Christian idea that humans are “but a little less than angels,” with the all dignity and autonomy implied. We are the “crown of creation,” and we have the political and social rights to prove it. Or so we believe.
On the other side of this collision of values is the billionaire mindset (no need to stretch the word “values” too far) which stems from the classical idea that only the powerful and famous—emperors and heroes—have lives worth living. In other words, only billionaires and those they smile upon have rights or any personal autonomy.
It might seem simple to choose another Republican judge, one who measures his words and actions carefully. But Trump and Republican senators are insisting on Kavanaugh, precisely because he lacks a judicial temperament, is an unbridled alcoholic, and respects neither the truth nor the rights of others. He is exactly what they are looking for as an exemplar. They are asserting that his actions are acceptable, even honorable, as a way of justifying behavior that is common among the rich and powerful. They are tired of living in the shadows, pretending to hold the values of the majority.
Ordinarily in this blog I try to go easy on individuals, mostly because I believe our problems stem from a bad system, not bad people. But sometimes the mistakes and shortcomings of an individual can shed light on that system.
The #metoo movement cannot stop Bret Kavanaugh, partly because many reasonable people have qualms about its lack of due process, but mostly because billionaire capitalism does not value human dignity, and refuses to accept the #metoo ethos.
But surely the #metoo movement has some cards to play? It might have had, but it has weakened itself by (largely) avoiding the issues of class and power. The accepted narrative emphasizes the gender aspect, with class and power discussed only superficially. So it was not well-positioned for a showdown with billionaire capitalism. If this is a matter of bad men then there are men everywhere, and who can say which men are bad, and which good? But if this is a matter of a bad system then things are clearer—because there’s only one system.
The Republican response is perhaps more interesting than the #metoo movement’s missteps. The rage of Kavanaugh, Graham and Trump, and the endlessly repeated echoes of that rage on Fox News, et al, all resemble narcissistic anger. Trump himself said he had been the victim of such false accusations “many times.” And despite his own admissions on the Access Hollywood tape, these accusations are false. They are “false” in the sense that they interfere with his narcissistic sense of himself and of the universe.
Likewise, Susan Collins—who probably believes she is far more truthful and realistic than the President—believes that Foster was assaulted, but not by Kavanaugh! If the billionaires need a Republican Senator to speak nonsense, she will speak nonsense without hesitation or shame.
And the way a good teacher will illustrate a theory with multiple examples of its application, Trump also doubled back to link the furor of Khashoggi’s disappearance to the accusations against Kavanaugh.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/16/politics/donald-trump-saudi-arabia/index.html
The lesson couldn’t be clearer: any accusation against a billionaire (or those that represent their interests, like Kavanaugh) is false, or almost certainly so.
The Saudis must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt—by an investigation they partly control. Then maybe Trump will believe it—or not.
Certainly Trump—at long last—will face criticism from evangelical Christians for defending such a heinous crime:
https://www.vox.com/2018/10/17/17990268/pat-robertson-khashoggi-saudi-arabia-trump-crisis
How did we end up here? Part of this situation is covered by billionaire socialization (see “The Very Rich are not like You and I”) and part of it is the political weakness and insecurity of the billionaire class. Conservatives have always tended to support existing hierarchies, in the absence of compelling reasons for change, but this is an especially critical issue now, as American billionaires struggle to consolidate their control.
The billionaire states we see today were all established where autocracy or oligarchy is the historic norm. Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia are the major examples.
There’s no case of a real billionaire state emerging in a country with long-established democratic institutions. That doesn’t mean that it can’t happen, but it would be a revolutionary change—and the citizenry would probably experience it as such. That won’t stop Trump and the Koch brothers and the rest of the Republican Party from trying, but they have their work cut out for them.
The billionaire movement has decided to defend and strengthen hierarchies everywhere, while simultaneously undermining democratic institutions and norms. Americans must learn to support hierarchies unthinkingly, because otherwise rule by billionaires will always be unacceptable to the majority.
And 17-year old football players attempting to rape 15-year-old nerd girls without consequence is part of the high school hierarchy that most of us have experienced.
And putting a defensive, petulant blackout-drunk on the Supreme Court has the effect of reducing the public’s respect for the judiciary. The public naturally asks, that guy?
So insisting on Bret Kavanaugh despite rational alternatives was a two-fer for the billionaire movement. They reduce support for the judiciary while sustaining an unjust social hierarchy.
And after all, if billionaire capitalism can destroy the earth’s climate without accountability then it can certainly grope and choke some 15-year-old girls. When Trump said he could walk up to any woman and grab her pussy, he was only being honest about the sexual reality of billionaire capitalism.
What the #metoo movement is doing is objecting to one aspect of capitalism’s power without recognizing or mentioning that this power is much larger and more destructive than rape and sexual harassment, as terrible as those are.
In a way, the #metoo movement is almost complicit. By focusing on sexual assault and harassment, it may create the impression that our other problems are less serious, and less systemic.
I understand that the #metoo survivors are often deeply wounded and alienated by their experiences, and they just want to somehow fix this one thing that makes their lives a misery.
But however traumatized and alienated one may be (and I know a bit about this), healing will never occur without insight and perspective.
And the insight and perspective we need here is that our civilization and our planet are being destroyed by billionaire capitalism. And systemic sexual assault is part of that destruction.
The Socialist Investor 